Walcountians fielded one of their strongest sides of the season, with scrum-half James Bacon, prop James Ford, lock Joe Lawrence and No8 Scott Bird all returning from injury. In addition, the Counts gave debuts to George and Sam Charnock, sons of former back row stalwart Wayne Charnock who was a mainstay of Walcountian sides in the 1980s and 1990s.

The Counts were on the front foot from the start, with props James Ford and Dom Bell anchoring a powerful set scrum which repeatedly drove Bec backwards and Scott Bird leading the cavalry charge in the loose with powerful driving runs. It was Bird’s securing of a lineout which started the move leading to Walcountians’ opening try in the 10th minute as it gave fly-half Seb Chmielinski the opportunity to set up debutant centre George Charnock to drive through the Bec defensive cover for a try converted by full-back Hal Mogridge.

Walcountians extended their lead to 14 points in the 20th minute when Hal Mogridge opened a gap in the visitors’ defence with a searing break and found Seb Chmielinski in support to run in for a try which Mogridge converted.

Seb Chmielinski scored his second try in the 30th minute when he bamboozled the Bec defence with a weaving run. Hal Mogridge once again added the points from a conversion.

Realising they were now three scores behind, Bec rallied during the closing minutes of the first half, but were unable to penetrate a rock-solid Walcountians defence. It was Walcountians who had the final word before the break when centres George Charnock and Joe Henderson launched a counter-attack from their own half and Seb Chmielinski scored his third try by outpacing Bec’s defence and getting first to a grubber kick from Joe Henderson.

The visitors were more resilient in the second half and managed to deny the Counts any further scores. However, it was Walcountians who had the greater share of the ball until the closing minutes when they were reduced to 12 players after Seb Chmielinski, James Ford and Andy Togbolah were all sent to the sin-bin. Bec took advantage of their numerical superiority to put winger Toby Spooner in for two late tries.

Walcountians are currently ninth out of 12 teams in Counties League 2 Surrey. However, they have widened the gap between them and the sides below, and they are only nine points behind fourth-placed Metropolitan Police, so there is optimism that they could secure a top-half position this season.

Next Saturday, Walcountians take on Old Cranleighans in a match that was postponed due to adverse weather conditions earlier in January. Kick-off at Clock House, Carshalton Road, Woodmansterne is at 2pm.

Old Walcountians:- Mogridge, Moorhead, Charnock (G), Henderson, Fletcher-Rogers, Chmielinski, Bacon, Ford, Tilleray, Bell, Thomas, Lawrence, Charnock (S), Camakamma, Bird.

Subs:- Sanders, Stevens, Togbolah.

Old Walcountians RFC

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